Woman Battling Severe Anorexia Shares Her Story With The World

37-year-old Rachael Farrokh says she has been fighting a battle with anorexia for 10 long years — but now, an extreme decline in her health has her determined to seek treatment and share her story with the world. Here’s why the woman battling severe anorexia is so anxious for others to get the message.

1. Once a classic beauty

Prior to her 10-year journey, Farrokh was the girl next door — beautiful, talented, healthy and smart, according to her husband, Rod Edmondson, 41, of San Clemente, California. “She was a very active individual growing up,” he said. “She was valedictorian, graduated summa cum laude. She’s a perfectionist.”

2. 50 pounds or less?

However, as her illness took hold, the 5-foot-7 Farrokh went from weighing a healthy 125 pounds to a now-shocking number that she asked not be disclosed. Farrokh, now so thin you can see her bones through her skin, spends her days and nights in a hospital bed inside her home. “My sister gave me a collage of pictures of when I was acting or doing certain things,” Farrokh told ABC News. “I look at that girl, the head shot, it’s only a few years old. It’s like I know I’ve wasted this much of my life. I just want to be that person again — that strong, independent woman that can be herself.